


The Talk

by chameleonwrites



Series: A Myriad of Stars [7]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pre-Relationship, Protective Jason Grace, Will's POV, jason gives will 'the talk'
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:26:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25265323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chameleonwrites/pseuds/chameleonwrites
Summary: When Jason Grace came to help Will carry a sleepy Nico back to his cabin, Will hadn't been prepared to receive a lecture from him. Jason apparently hadn't got the memo.*Set during A Myriad of Stars*
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Series: A Myriad of Stars [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1349116
Comments: 16
Kudos: 180





	The Talk

**Author's Note:**

> An extra from 'A Myriad of Stars' after the campfire scene, set in Will's POV!

Will sighed down at the sleeping lump on his arm as the campfire drew to an end. It had been pretty obvious since Will had collected Nico that the shorter boy was absolutely exhausted. Still, Will knew how stubborn he was and he never would have agreed to Will suggesting they skip the campfire so that he can rest.

Besides, Will really didn’t mind Nico napping on his shoulder. It felt like Nico had lowered another barrier in trust and it did weird things to Will’s heart that Cecil and Lou Ellen would give him endless grief about if they knew.

The downside to Nico being on Will’s shoulder, though, was that now the campfire was over, Will had to return to his cabin and so did Nico.

Will wasn’t weak. He spent his days carrying twenty boxes of medical supplies across the infirmary, running manically between patients, and, when he actually got time to join in camp activities, he could haul himself up the climbing wall in record time.

But Will wasn’t really that strong, either. He’d not been sword fighting for years as Nico had and as petite as the son of Hades looked, he packed a lot of muscle in him, and Will wouldn’t have to be a doctor to tell you that muscle weighed more than fat.

Realising his predicament as he awkwardly picked Nico up bridal style and attempted not to topple over backward when he stood up, Will glanced around to see if any of his siblings were left around to help him.

Unfortunately, there was only Austin left, and the poor guy had a whole tenor saxophone to carry back without the added weight of Will’s sleepy crush.

Instead, Will glanced around desperately for Cecil or Lou Ellen, but they, too, had conveniently disappeared in his hour of greatest need.

“Hey, man, are you okay carrying Nico?” a voice asked behind Will, and if he hadn’t been worried he’d drop Nico, Will would have spun around to greet his knight in shining armour with open arms.

That was until the knight walked around to in front of Will and he discovered it was Jason Grace. Normally, Will would have no problem with the son of Jupiter- Jason had even seemed very helpful when briefly telling Will that Nico had struggled to sleep the previous night because of a demigod dream- but Jason had also been glaring daggers at him all the way through the Campfire and now Will was just that little bit more terrified of him.

“I’m okay, really. Nico’s just a bit heavier than he looks. I don’t want to wake him, though,” Will rambled, hoping Jason would take the hint and leave. Jason did no such thing. Instead, he hooked his arms under Nico’s legs and torso and quite easily lifted the son of Hades out of Will’s grasp.

“It’s really no problem,” Jason promised. Will resisted the urge to scowl at him. Show off. “Just come with me to open the door and help get Nico in bed, will you?”

“Yeah, yeah, sure,” Will agreed, reluctantly tagging along as Jason made his way back to the Hades cabin with Nico. Why couldn’t Will have taken him back? Sure, he might have needed a little bit of extra assistance but he would have killed to see the expression on Nico’s face when Will told him what had happened at breakfast the following morning.

His mood seriously improved from imagining a blushing, indignant Nico and Will found himself grinning dopily for the rest of their journey to Nico’s cabin. He supposed it was an improvement from glaring at Jason.

When they arrived, Will did indeed hold the door open and watched as Jason placed Nico in his bed. Still a little miffed that he hadn’t been allowed to help carry Nico back, Will stepped forward and draped the covers over Nico, unable to resist giving him a fond smile as he did so.

Silently, Jason motioned for the two of them to leave, afraid of waking Nico. Will was about to protest, much preferring to admire the fond look on Nico’s face rather than have to leave. Alas, Jason was still there, so Will followed him out, reluctantly.

“Thanks for helping,” Will said once they were outside because, despite his slight frustration that Jason, who seemingly hated him right now, had helped, he had been asking for help. “I’d better get back to my cabin, now.”

“Not so fast,” Jason paused Will before he could leave. Will swallowed the lump in his throat and nervously turned around to face Jason.

“Yes?” he asked, his voice higher than normal. Silently, he was debating how fast he’d be able to heal himself if Jason decided to strike him with a lightning bolt. His chances of survival weren’t looking great, though, and neither was the stormy look that had crossed Jason’s face.

“I wanted to talk to you about Nico, first,” Jason said.

“Right. Sure. What about him?” Will responded, wondering if it was possible for him to sound like more of an idiot than he was doing.

“What are your intentions?” Jason asked and Will choked on his own saliva.

“My _intentions_?” he spluttered, “I’m not trying to lure him in to kill him in the middle of the night if that’s what you’re wondering.”

“No, I know that, of course,” Jason shook his head and his face softened, making Will feel slightly more relieved. “It’s just,” Jason continued, “I’ve seen the way you look at him. I don’t want to make assumptions, but-“

“No, you’re right,” Will sighed. It wasn’t like he could hide it all that well, and all his friends knew anyway, “I like Nico. A lot. But I’m not about to do anything about it- I’d never jeopardise our friendship like that.”

“Oh, I’m not telling you to never do anything about it,” Jason hurriedly said, “but I am going to warn you.”

Will looked at Jason quizzically for a moment.

“Are you about to give me 'the talk'?” he asked with a raised eyebrow, “because you’re not that much older than me and my mom already did that when I told her I was gay, so you really don’t have to.”

“No!” Jason spluttered, his face going red, “I wasn’t about to give you ‘the talk’. Or at least, I was going to give you a more Nico-centric talk.”

“Oh gods, I don’t think I can cope with this,” Will panicked and he was about to turn around and sprint towards his cabin, hoping he was faster than Jason when Jason clamped a hand on his shoulder.

“It’s not like that,” Jason insisted, “I just want you to understand what this means to Nico.”

Will raised an eyebrow silently so Jason continued.

“Nico’s been through a _lot_. And I’m not just talking about the enemies he’s faced and the battles he’s fought in. He’s been battling his own brain for _years_ and that’s not the kind of thing you can recover from quickly. I know he’s doing better- we’ve all noticed it- but he’s not going to heal overnight,” Jason said calculatedly. “I warned you this morning that Nico had a bad dream, but this goes further than a bad dream. I found out when we had a particularly nasty run-in with Eros. He cut pretty deep into Nico and I know he didn’t take it lightly.”

“Oh,” Will muttered. He couldn’t imagine a run-in with Eros turning out particularly well for anyone.

“Eros tried to make Nico feel ashamed and that stuck with him. I just want you to be careful with his feelings and careful with yours. I know you’re a very openly affectionate person so I’m just warning you that it might not always be the best around Nico,” Jason tried to explain, “but I don’t speak for Nico and if you’ve heard differently from him then, of course, listen to that. I just don’t want Nico to be hurt and I don’t want you to be hurt, either.”

Will considered Jason’s words. He really did seem like he genuinely wanted to help, but Will already knew Nico wasn’t a big fan of PDA and it was pretty obvious he wasn’t used to physical contact from his touch-starved state.

“Thanks,” Will decided to say, “I care about Nico a lot. I’d never intentionally do anything to hurt him and I’ll be careful, too, but Nico’s strong. I’m not going to baby him because I don’t think that would help. I’m going to be myself around him and treat him like a normal demigod. He was so used to being treated differently at camp before you guys arrived and I don’t want him to feel like that anymore. He’s been pushed away all his life and everyone used to walk on eggshells around him, but I don’t want to do that. He deserves to be treated normally.”

Will wasn’t quite sure where his confidence had come from, but he was staring down Jason Grace as if he’d just defeated a giant.

To Will’s surprise, Jason smiled.

“You really do care about him. I’m glad. Nico deserves someone like you, and you deserve to be happy with Nico,” he grinned, “see you around, Will.”

With that, Jason began making his way back across Camp, headed to his own cabin.

“Wait, was that a _test_?” Will spluttered, suddenly, running after Jason indignantly. Jason didn’t reply but Will could practically sense the smirk on his face. With a huff, Will gave up trying to follow him and diverted to the Apollo cabin, slumping down on his bed and ignoring the pointed looks he was receiving from his siblings.

What was it with children of the Big Three and being unnecessarily infuriating?

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this! I briefly mentioned that Jason spoke to Will after the Campfire in the main series so decided to expand on exactly how that conversation went down, here!


End file.
